Recently I attended a tour of the Ameren UE nuclear power plant in Callaway County. This is the first time I have toured a power plant in my seven years as a Missouri House Representative. Although the plant is visible to motorists from the I-70, I have never been very close to it. The steam column always looks ominous from a distance. Although the steam column is the most visible, the nuclear power generation actually takes place in the domed building next to it. This plant is so well reinforced, I felt as though I were in the “mission-control room” of a well constructed fort!
Our electric rates are projected to double or triple if the congress in Washington DC creates new hardships and punishes those who use coal fueled power plants through the proposed “Cap and Trade” Bill. Nuclear power is the least expensive form of electric generation available, but only about 20% of our electricity comes from a nuclear source. Electricity has been the source of our financial development and stability. Ask your grandmother how it improved her life when the washing machine & dryer, air conditioning, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, electric mixer and other labor saving devices were made available!
Despite what you may have heard about wind and solar, Missouri does not have ideal conditions for either. To get enough sun requires building in the southwest where they don’t have so many cloudy days. To get enough wind requires building in the Northwest. Missouri has days when we have neither sun nor wind to produce any electricity whatsoever, so building a supplemental power plant remains in our future.
While you may not think your electric bill is anything to brag about, our rates in Missouri are currently among the lowest in the nation. Part of the reason for this has to do with our ability to use plants that were built and paid for decades ago. Current projections show that our demand for electricity will increase 20-30 % over the next 20 years. Our current power plants will not be able to supply enough for this demand. In general, people are using more electricity per capita with all the new electronic appliances, flat screen TVs, phone chargers, AC adapters and every other gadget you can imagine. I love living in the age of modern conveniences and appreciate all the utilities that save us time and make our lives better. This has an economic impact of making us more productive, well groomed and able to spend more time doing what we truly enjoy.
If our congress passes the “Cap and Trade Bill” get ready to see your electric rates really go up. The best way to understand Cap and Trade is to consider the game of musical chairs. Right now, there are enough chairs for everybody, but Cap and Trade seeks to remove chairs every year until there are only a few players left in the game. The end result will be less electricity available at very high prices. If you didn’t like what happened when gas went up to over $4 per gallon, you are really not going to like this!
Link here to read: Who Really Pays For Cap & Trade? And here to read What Cap & Trade will cost families.
I asked my source at Ameren UE what happens if those in Washington don’t pass the bill once they realize that a recession is a horrible time to inflict additional, undue hardship on the American people. He said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) already has enough power to levy these taxes. The blame still falls to Congress who created and gives this power to the EPA. Our congress has the power to create, direct and dismantle the EPA like a robot.
Here is the bottom line: Those representing us are asking all the wrong questions. Instead of trying to further destabilize the economy by increasing the cost of living expenses on the citizens, they should be asking, “How can we help our citizens and free markets gain access to less expensive utilities?” Perhaps the best answer is for congress to curtail their interference in our lives. This Cap and Trade experiment may turn out to be a great test of whether Congress cares more about their constituents or the lobbyists.
This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Cynthia Davis: Cap and Trade a punishment for all of us
In her latest newsletter, Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon takes aim at federal cap and trade legislation:
Turner just can't leave alone a state legislator living 300 miles away around St. Louis, and thus another one of 163 members of the House but with the exception that she wanted teachers like Randy Turner to leave them kids alone outside the classroom and to make sure that they had no criminal record inside the classroom. Turner hasn't forgiven or forgotten THAT.
ReplyDeleteNow it makes sense that she should be against increased taxes and 'cap and trade' legistreason which will not do anything for the environment -- "global warming" being revealed as a hoax used to increase the power of government and the fact that China and India put out a new coal-burning polluting electrical generator every week or so -- in the midst of a big government/central bankster derived depression. Representative Davis fails to see how anything is to be gained by cutting into the supply and cost of electricity which is necessary to make all our lives richer and better, or even as it was. Certainly not when there is a 'jobless recovery' with a real unemployment rate approaching 15-20 percent.
So how will things be improved by making electricity more expensive? I can see how a public school teacher like Randy Turner thinks that the government does things so much better than us private citizens can hope to manage -- at least during Democratic administrations and Congresses -- but do we really wish a corps of edumacated idiots already turning our children into drones like they are deciding how public utilities should be run or taxed?
It could be argued that since Representative Davis talks good sense that it is foolish to raise taxes and give power to those who got us into the Greatest Depression, but rather to use more non-carbon generating nuclear power in a geologically stable area of the country, that Randy Turner decided to show that he could be balanced and fair in his usually biased reportage concerning an elected official (living across the state, no less) that he doesn't like.
Naaaaahhhhh! There is a tone in this article that only liberal dogs and drones can hear and methinks I sense the smell of sanctimoniousness, the all-purpose slime that vicious evil slugs use as both armor and to leave a trail upon which they glide.
Oh well, what to do . . . . where's my salt shaker?
There's a tone in Davis' OWN newsletter that appeals only to liberals? Your comment attacking Turner is funny given that the only part of the post that is in his writing is this:
ReplyDelete"In her latest newsletter, Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon takes aim at federal cap and trade legislation:"
Yeah, I can smell the self-righteousness eeking from those words. It's quite revolting to the conservative ear.
Let's see. 160-some other State Reps in the Missouri House and Cynthia Davis lives across the state and Turner is obsessed with her?
ReplyDeleteI am simply wondering why . . . . when we all know why. Davis is someone who stands for everything Turner is against, like parents taking care of their own children and keeping liberal drones like Turner at arm's length. And thus Turner has to incessantly attack her, when in reality, there are plenty of state reps in this area like Emory, none too much different than Davis.
You see, in Cynthia Davis' Ideal world, and in mine, you liberal drones wouldn't be able to use the power of the government to get to our children and our wallets. You could all move to San Francisco or New York City and live out your sterile liberal lives without ever affecting our lives in the slightest.
But I must admit that the main reason I like Cynthia Davis, is that Turner and you other liberals hate her and all she stands for. If not for your hatred, I doubt that I ever would have heard of some state rep living on the other side of the state.
As mentioned above, you can see where a slug has been by simply noting its trail of slime. And but a single grain of salt cutting through the slime to the oozing flesh beneath, sends the slug into a rolling agony as it threshes about.
What we really should do is simply admit that we hate each other, put an end to hypocrisy, and get to the task of killing each other by means of civil war. You liberals want to bring Sans Francisco and New York/New Jersey to Southwest Missouri, and we can't have that.
Cap and trade legislation will be devastating to our economy. It will kill jobs and raise energy costs. One has to wonder why we would intentionally pass legislation we know will have such catastrophic consequences. Write your Senators and tell them you do not support cap and trade at http://tiny.cc/pxIgi.
ReplyDeleteWell, we the people wouldn't intentionally pass such legislation, but our would-be masters in D.C. are happy to given the massive possibilities for graft and corruption in the handing out of "carbon credits" and how this allows D.C. to regulate every aspect of American life, right down to your gasoline powered lawnmower.
ReplyDeleteThe only saving grace to this mess is that of interregional warfare: parts of the country like ours that mostly depend on fossil fuels will be hit a lot harder than the coastal regions. So everyone expects this will die in the Senate (at least until after the 2010 election).